Sam Merrill invited to PG camp hosted by Chris Paul
The 2018-19 Mountain West Player of the Year, Sam Merrill, normally lines up as Utah State’s starting shooting guard. That didn’t stop him from receiving an invitation to the CP3 Elite Guard Camp hosted by none other than Houston Rockets guard Chris Paul.
The news was first reported online by @UtahProspects on Twitter (the post was retweeted by Merrill’s account) and was later confirmed through a press release from the Utah State athletics department.
Sam Merrill has received one of 15 invitations to the prestigious CP3 camp for college PG’s. Tear it up Sam! pic.twitter.com/GTkTKEDSyV
— Exum Elite (@UtahProspects) June 28, 2019
Though in each of Merrill’s 35 starts he had a designated point guard beside him (either Crew Ainge or Abel Porter), not all of his 1,237 minutes were spent as the off-guard. For large portions of the season, especially the latter half, USU head coach Craig Smith went with a rotation slim on traditional point guards, often having just one. In fact, non-Abel Porter PGs totaled just 130 minutes in conference play. Since Merrill rarely left the court — averaging 35.3 minutes the whole year and 37.1 in conference play — that left a not-insignificant portion of the point guard duties in his very capable hands.
Sam Merrill starts an offensive possession for Utah State against Air Force.
Last year, 23 college guards attended the camp along with an additional 30 high school players. Of the collegiate group, six were taken in last month’s NBA Draft, five signed free agent deals with NBA teams and two more were signed to Summer League rosters.
Among the more prestigious alumni of the camp in recent years are Ja Morant, Markus Howard, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Chris Clemons, Marcquise Reed, Jon Elmore and former Craig Smith pupil Matt Mooney. Older participants include Stephen Curry, Kemba Walker, C.J. McCollum, Bradley Beal and Victor Oladipo.
Merrill’s 4.2 assists per game led an Aggie team that ranked ninth in team assists nation-wide and first in the Mountain West. Merrill finished third in the MW in total assists (147) despite also being second the conference in field goal attempts (495). Even more impressive is that Merrill had the seventh-lowest turnover percentage (10.0) in the conference despite being sixth in usage percentage (26.5).
Even when cast on the backdrop of the NCAA’s 1,751 leaderboard-qualified guards in 2018-19, Merrill was far from a scrub. The junior came in at 122nd in assists per game (93rd percentile) and 95th in total assists (95th percentile). Merrill was also one of just 14 players to average at least four assists and less than two turnovers per game.